Weviews

If you want to send me walking gear, food or just moral support, be my guest. You can guarantee my honest thoughts. If I've mentioned something I've used, a place I've been to, it's probably because I actually care about it. I just want to share. Don't get your lawyers involved, just do better, or, if I liked it, carry on as you are.

 

Here I will record a shoe story:

 

The original shoes were a pair of Scarpa Crux WMN. They had to be about the most comfortable shoes I had at the time. More comfortable than the trainers, I wore them everywhere. They are designed as approach shoes - the kind of thing that you might take for slightly more technical ascents that the Sussex Downs, if I'm honest. The high toe rand could cope with my clearly quite clumsy walking style, the  suede leather molded to my foot over time and they could be resoled if needed. My only gripes were that they came in the standard fuschia and light blue (the uniform for outdoor women) and they didn't cope with the puddly lowlands quite as well as I might have liked. Thinking back, I don't know whether this was a design fault but the tongue was stitched all the way round and this seemed wrong. They had served me very well and I still wanted another pair.

 

At the time, I had to buy from Germany to get my next pair. This time. they were the same shoe but Gore-tex, containing the waterproof membrane ubiquitous of many an outdoor item. Ideal, I thought. However, it wasn't all that long before I found my feet wet again. How could this be. We're back to tongues again, it seems, because I noticed that the material here had worn through under the laces. Top marks then to Scarpa for their customer service that asked me to return the shoes to them for inspection. No quibble, they gave me a new pair as a fault had been found. The same design was not in stock....

 

I chose the Scarpa Rove GTX. But, oh dear, I should have sized up. Scarpa do climbing and that lends  their shoes to be on the very close-fitting side. My feet aren't complete paddles but I need room for these long journeys and I was beginning to think I should try something else.

 

My next pair were Keen Women's Targhee IV Waterproof hiking shoes. No lookers, they did promise a wider toebox and their own waterproof membrane with odour protection. They have a lot of environmentally more sustainable features but no amount of protection against smells is going to help when they let the water in. I was so disappointed. So much for the fused-construction. Very comfortable but never a stinkier or wetter pair.

 

I'm very nearly going for wellies at this stage but thinking maybe this was a one-off I bought the Women's NXIS EVO Waterproof Boots. These were cheap from ebay. Wet again and wearing out very quickly.

 

Having read a review in the Guardian by someone, a woman that walks, no less, I now have gone for Lowa Women's Innovo GTX Mid Boots and you know what? These seem to be getting water in somehow. It almost feels like it's coming up from the sole. When I take the inners out, it looks pretty shoddy underneath. TO BE CONTINUED...